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ENB - Statewide Notices 7/13/2011

Public Notice

Pursuant to Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) Section 71-0301, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) hereby gives notice of the following:

The NYS DEC proposes to amend subdivision 620.2(a) of title 6 of the Official Compilation of Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of New York (6 NYCRR) to correct two typographical errors to conform the regulatory language to the enabling statute at ECL71-0301. Specifically, the word "or" will replace the word "of" in two places in subdivision 620.2(a). The typographical errors are from the original 1977 rulemaking that enacted the Part 620 summary abatement procedures.

Comments on the proposed amendments and supporting documents will be accepted by NYS DEC until close of business, Monday, September 12, 2011. Please submit comments to James T. McClymonds at the address listed below. Comments may also be submitted via e-mail to: jtmcclym@gw.dec.state.ny.us. Please include "SAO Comments" in the subject line of the e-mail.

The notice of proposed rulemaking, express terms and associated rulemaking documents are available electronically from James T. McClymonds. Paper copies may be obtained from the contact listed below.

This notice announces the availability of a DRAFT Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) document proposed by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) and United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) to address the following waterbody:

Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario is impaired for fish consumption by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Public comment on this document will be accepted for 30 days, through August 9, 2011.

Background: States are required by Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (US EPA's) implementing regulations (40CFR Part 130) to develop TMDL plans for waterbodies and pollutants where water quality standards are not being met. By definition, a TMDL specifies the allowable pollutant loading from all contributing sources (e.g., point sources, nonpoint sources, and natural background) at a level necessary to attain the applicable water quality standards with seasonal variations and a margin of safety that takes into account any lack of knowledge concerning the relationship between the sources of the pollutant and water quality. In essence, a TMDL defines the assimilative capacity of the waterbody to absorb a pollutant and still meet water quality standards.

The proposed PCB TMDL for Lake Ontario will require a greater than 99% reduction in the load of PCBs entering Lake Ontario. Where applicable, permit limits will be established for those dischargers who, through monitoring, are shown to have PCBs in their discharges that can be controlled through the implementation of a PCB Minimization Plan. Nonpoint sources of PCB contamination will continue to be tracked down through the Lake Ontario Management Plan. The primary source of PCBs related impairments is from legacy contaminants in the lake sediments as well as exchange from the atmosphere.

Information: Copies of the proposed draft plans can be found on the NYS DEC website at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/23835.html, or by contacting Lorraine Holdridge at NYS DEC - Division of Water, Bureau of Water Resources Management, 625 Broadway, 4th Floor, Albany, NY 12233-3508, or by phone at (518) 408-5718, or via email at: laholdri@gw.dec.state.ny.us. Comments should be sent, written or via email, to the same addresses. Comments received by close of business August 9, 2011 will be considered prior to submitting the final TMDL to the US EPA for approval.

Data Solicitation for 2012 CWA Section 303(d) List

Section 303(d) of the Federal Clean Water Act (CWA) requires States to compile periodically (every two years) a list of impaired waters that do not meet water quality standards and where designated uses are not fully supported and where a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) plan is necessary to address the impairment. States are scheduled to submit their next Section 303(d) Lists to USEPA by April 1, 2012. To support the development of the Section 303(d) Lists, States are also required to assemble and evaluate existing and readily available water quality related data and information. New York State is currently soliciting and accepting water quality data and information that may be useful in compiling the 2012 Section 303(d) List.

Background: The water quality assessment of New York State's waters is a continuous process. Every year waters in two or three of the 17 drainage basins in the state are scheduled to be reassessed. This rotating basin approach allows for a reassessment of water quality of the entire state every five years. The assessment of these waters is a public process and participation and input from a wide range of state, federal and local agencies and non governmental water quality partners (watershed groups, lake associations, academic researchers, etc.) is encouraged. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) is able to effectively manage the statewide assessment process by focusing the effort on a limited number of specific drainage basins each year. Concentrating on a few basins each year allows NYS DEC to provide ample opportunity for the extensive list of interested groups to provide input and allows for a thorough evaluation of all available data.

However every two years, corresponding to the development of the New York State's Section 303(d) List, the public is solicited to provide water quality data and information for any waterbody (any basin). This allows for a more comprehensive updating of the List. Some of the solicited data and information may result in changes to the List; other data, it may be determined, will have no impact on the List, but will be used during the subsequent water quality assessment for the corresponding basin during the reassessment cycle. Some of the data and information received during the solicitation may not be sufficiently conclusive to make a definitive impairment determination and use of this data and information may also be deferred until the more complete assessment of the corresponding basin is conducted.

In order to maintain an effective and comprehensive review of solicited data and information and insure the timely submittal of the List, it is necessary to establish a cut off date for the receipt of water quality data and information. Therefore in order to be included for full consideration in the compiling of the 2012 CWA Section 303(d) List, data and information must be received by September 30, 2011. It is not the intent of this cut off date to exclude additional information. Rather the date is necessary in order to provide adequate time to review data and information, complete water quality assessments, receive and respond to public comment on the assessments, compile a draft Section 303(d) List, public notice the List, and submit a List to United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) by April 1, 2012.

In order to facilitate the review and inclusion of water quality data and information to be considered in the compiling of the 2012 Section 303(d) List, such submissions should be accompanied by a completed Waterbody Inventory/Priority Waterbodies List (WI/PWL) Assessment Worksheet. This worksheet allows for the capture of water quality information based on available data, or based on general observation of conditions and/or local knowledge of designated use support/non support of a waterbody absent specific (numeric) monitoring data. Information regarding the Waterbody Inventory/Priority Waterbodies List, including the WI/PWL worksheet and instructions for completing the worksheet, can found on the NYS DEC website at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/23846.html. Worksheet information can also be obtained by contacting Jeff Myers at the NYS DEC - Division of Water, Bureau of Watershed Assessment and Management by mail at 625 Broadway, 4th Floor, Albany, NY 12233-3502, or by phone at: (518) 402-8179. Completed WI/PWL worksheets and supporting water quality monitoring data should be sent to the address above, or forwarded via email to: 4pwlinfo@dec.ny.gov. Water quality data and information should also include a copy of the corresponding Quality Assurance/Quality Control Plan, QA/QC results summary and description of measures used in the collection of the data.

Guidance regarding the use of water quality data and information to conduct assessment and make listing decisions is outlined in the New York State Consolidated Assessment and Listing Methodology. These methodologies are available for review and NYS DEC will accept public comment on these documents throughout the 2012 Section 303(d) List development process. Additional information regarding Section 303(d) List development, including the Consolidated Assessment and Listing Methodology can be found on the NYS DEC website at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/31290.html.

Additional information regarding the NYS DEC Water Quality Assessment Program, including the Waterbody Inventory/Priority Waterbodies List assessments and Section 305(b) water quality reporting can be found on the NYS DEC website at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/23852.html.

The New York State Department of Health (NYS DOH) and the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (NYS EFC) amend the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) Final Intended Use Plan (IUP) dated October 1, 2010.

This Final amendment No. 2 revises the Sources and Uses Table (Table 1) and the amount and distribution of Set-asides Funds (Table 2) in the IUP to reflect changes based on the actual federal DWSRF allocation for FFY 2011. This amendment also includes project specific amendments that are required to facilitate sufficient financing amounts for projects scheduled to close on their financings and to amend the IUP to correct data entry errors as well as other noted project specific changes.

Leveraging the reserve allocation three times will provide financing of $340,908,372 worth of eligible projects. Combined with direct financing and grants expected to close, the total subsidized funding capacity for this IUP period is $390,271,593.

DWSRF#16863 (Score 110) Suffolk County Water Authority, Suffolk County- Project removed from readiness list and removed ARRA financing note due to applicant's decision not to pursue the project. The ARRA funds originally committed to this project ($2,562,618) are being applied as financing to the Onondaga County Water Authority (OCWA) project DWSRF #17458. This OCWA project is a previously approved ARRA project and was only partially ARRA funded due to the exhaustion of the original ARRA funds.

The NYS DOH has determined that the project specific changes are necessary, reasonable and consistent with the original project concept and the scope of the projects has not changed. The project priority rankings above the funding line were not altered and the project specific changes or the changes to the IUP sources, uses, and set-asides will not adversely affect any project on the IUP Project Readiness List above the funding line. Except for the above-noted changes, there are no other changes to projects listed on the Project Readiness List or to the project priority rankings.

You can also view Final Amendment #2 to the DWSRF IUP dated October 1, 2010 or find more information regarding the DWSRF program at: http://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/water/drinking/water.htm.